leornian

Forms

leornian (weak class 2; third-person singular present leornaþ, past singular leornode, past plural leornodon)^[1] Also spelled liornian, the headword in Holthausen.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn, from Proto-Germanic *lizaną (“to know”).^[1] Holthausen and Köbler give the Germanic verb as *liznōn.^[2][3] The cognates are Old Frisian lirnia, Old Saxon līnon and Old High German lernēn, lirnēn.^[4][2][1] Bosworth and Toller give Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌽 (leisan) as the corresponding verb there.^[5]

Orel derives the verb from the noun that became lār, and Holthausen and Köbler also group it with that noun and with lāst “footprint”.^[4][2][3] Köbler takes it, with a question mark, to the root Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“track, furrow”),^[3] and Kroonen sets up the noun Proto-Germanic *laisō (“track, trail”) from it.^[6] Etymonline puts the original sense as “to follow a track”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from the mid-ninth century, in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter: sele me ondget ðæt ic leornie bibodu ðin “give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments” over Latin “ut discam mandata tua” (Psalm 118).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb means to gain knowledge or a skill by study or teaching, with an object, a clause or an infinitive, and also to read a book in order to learn from it: Bosworth and Toller quote it rendering Latin “discere” and “legere”.^[5][10] Köbler adds “meditari” among the Latin words it glosses.^[3] In Beowulf it means to think out or plan: the king wræce leornode, he planned revenge.^[10][11] A saying in Ælfric's pastoral letter runs Lange sceal leornian se ðe lǽran sceal “long must he learn who has to teach”.^[5]

The word lived on as Middle English lernen, recorded in the Ormulum about 1175, now English learn.^[12][7]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – ðæt ic leornie bibodu ðin in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][9]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][9]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – reading and studying scripture in the Old English Bede.^[14][5]
• s. x/xi – wræce leornode “planned revenge” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][11]
• c. 1175 – Middle English leornenn in the Ormulum.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to learn, acquire knowledge or a skill.^[5][10]
2. to study; to read a book in order to learn.^[5][3]
3. to think out, devise, plan.^[11][16]

Word family

• ġeleornian
• þurhleornian
• leornere
• leornung
• leorningcniht
• leornungcræft

Descendants

• Middle English lernen (→ English learn; Middle Scots lern; Middle Scots leirn)^[1]

Related words

• lǣran
• lār

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 203
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. liornian
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 247
5. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 634
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 324
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
9. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 613
11. ^ a b c Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. leornian
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 531
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
16. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 129